The Visitors Before Easter
by akizaki14
Summary: Still suffering from her mom's death, M.K. did not expect two visitors to come in the night, much less the night before Easter. One visits for a last goodbye, while the other…let's just say she mistaken him as somebody.


**This one-shot branched from my other fic "Death Can't Sever Their Bond", just see if it'll get some positive feedback. **

**This crossover happened before the movie Epic and during the teeth collecting in Burgess before the Guardians gather in Jamie's room.**

**Now this is a sad chapter I type, if it appears sad to you, readers. This is a story within a movie (side story or extra if you like) of North's encounter while the Guardians are collecting teeth in Burgess before they gather in Jamie's room and a tribute to the fierce, fun and kind, Mary Katherine Joyce.**

**(Thanks to my beta Bookworm1756 for making this fic better!)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ROTG or Epic.**

* * *

Way before midnight in the silent town of Burgess, a house located at the opposite end of the city, away from the Bennett residence stood next to an intersection. But it's the house _beside _the one at the intersection that we're interested in. The house is simple but painted brightly to bring out a vibe of cheerfulness despite the sleepiness the neighbourhood. But on closer inspection it is ironic the air surrounding it felt heavy and gloomy, making the night sky appear like it was inmourning reflecting the feelings of its remaining tenant.

Everyone in town is sleeping in their bed, while some on couches in the living room for reasons of watching late night shows, depression, or sleepover with their friends for the egg hunt on (1)Saturday, which is tomorrow—but shouldn't they celebrate Easter on Sunday? The tenant herself is sleeping in the living room because of reason #2.

Do you want to know why?

Basically because of depression; but why is that person depressed? Just stated from the first paragraph the person is mourning over a deceased housemate. But not just a housemate, but the tenant's mother who was buried yesterday due to some sickness or accident that the author herself of this chapter doesn't even know of.

Back in the living room the tenant, underneath the blankets, was holding a picture of two smiling people; one is a woman with black hair, the other a teenage girl sharing the same face as the woman. If not for her red hair and green eyes the two could be mistaken for twins.

You can already guess with the obvious hints that the older woman in the picture is the dead mother while the teen is the tenant herself, hugging their last photo together taken weeks before her mother died.

Tracks of dried tears stained the teen's sleeping but frowning face from her crying a few hours ago. Her ponytail was set loosefrom her tossing, letting her hair flow on the cushion pillow like blood.

Like everyone else in their dreamland whether old or young, nightmares or not, one may smile or frown or mumble or twitch depending on their dreams; if they see their crush or cute things they love, their terrible teachers from Satan, the books they have read with their brain, organizing the information, or fighting against villains to save the world from total damnation.

Neither of those are what the teen has in the living room; in her slumber her lips formed a tight line when her late mom decided to pay her a visit in her dream…

* * *

_Luscious green grass rolling endlessly down the field, the blue sky above her so vast and clear. The place emitted a peaceful feeling in contrast to hers that she doubted__could only exist in movies. She looked around in curiosity to this beautiful landscape until a familiar voice that made her heart ache called her name._

_"M.K."_

_She turned around and saw her mom standing at the foot of the tiny hill she __was__standing on. Smiling healthily in her white gossamer dress__,__ looking __more__ alive than she had ever seen, she hoped that all __that__grieving __had just been__a dream and what she is seeing now is real and not a figment of her mind's creation._

_"Miss me?"_

_Now __that__ the grieving teen has a name, M.K. only stared __at__her mom in utter disbelief before her face broke she dashed down the hill and flung herself in the arms of her mother._

_"…Tell me… tell me this isn't a dream. If it is," M.K. sniffed, "I missed you so much, Mom." She said the last part of her sentence in a whisper as she clung more to her dress cementing the memory __of__ her mom's jasmine and honeydew scent._

_Her mom's warm hand caressed her red hair and frowned, "This is a dream. I'm sorry. But what you are seeing is real and the best way we can talk without spooking you__,__ like in Ghost."_

_She laughed, her jokes __were__still the best even in death__,__ and __they__ always made her laugh._

_They laughed in each others arms as one of them finally stopped where only the sound of the gentle breeze __could__be heard. None of the two made a sound or __did__anything._

_They just enjoyed each other's presence until her mom ended it._

_"Be strong, M.K.…" she whispered._

_A feeling of foreboding sunk in her stomach from her mother's tired tone, and from that tone, she wished it's not yet coming…_

_Her mom gently pulled back with a painful smile __on__ her beautiful face. She cupped her hands on either side of her face and planted a kiss filled with a mother's love on her forehead when a soft light appeared out of nowhere behind her mom._

_She gasped__,__ hoping that the light __did not represent__ what she's thinking._

_M.K. became alarmed when her mom took a step backwards __in__the light's direction as she slowly __ran__her thin hands from her face down to her elbow. "M-Mom, where are you going?"_

_She gave M.K. a knowing smile and she suddenly felt like she __was__ four again when she __became__curious __of__ why her grandfather was sleeping inside a box__,__ and __Mom said__…_

_"To a place where the sun never sets."_

_And now it __was__her time to go there._

_Her breath hitched from her reply because her mom is giving her a goodbye. She outstretched her arms __like what__ her mom __had been__ doing before she paused momentarily to squeeze both her hands._

_"And a place where I am always there," she pointed her __once__occupied hand to her heart, "no matter where I am…"_

_"N-No. P-please, don't leave me!" she begged, tears __forming__in her eyes as she ignored the reason that the dead need to rest and be let go, but for once she wanted to be selfish. She wanted to grab her mom away from the light but her feet were magically glued __to__ the ground._

_Her mom flashed another painful smile and said, "I know it will be lonely without me, but you will meet people… people who will be there for you. And your father... I regret we didn't get the chance to see him in summer…." She chuckled. "Even though he is obsess__ed with__ chasing tiny people, I'm sure he needs you more than I do."_

_No, she will never dare visit her dad. It's because of his obsession to work that her mom divorced him, but does she even have a choice since her mom was planning to pay him a visit __during__ the summer with her but didn't get the chance since she's dead? She __had__to, against her will__, maybe__._

_"Please take care of your father."_

_M.K. sniffed, her tears cascading down her cheeks, "I-I'll miss you so much, M-Mom."_

_"And I'll miss you too, honey."_

_And digit by digit her mom let go of her hand as she stepped back with her hands still outstretched, holding nothing in thin air._

_M.K. stood in place with her feet still glued to the ground, doing the same as her mother continued to widen the gap between them until she __was__ inches away from the light. She lowered her arms to her side and her form appeared to be glowing as the light shined from behind her._

_"Tell your father I love him."_

_She still loved him despite the divorce she solely initiated for the good of the two; M.K.'s heart ached because she still __couldn't__accept the fact that she __had__a father who loves his work more than his family._

_Her mom slowly pivoted half-way to face the light._

_"I-I…" M.K. sobbed and she took a deep breath to whisper, "I love you, Mom."_

_Her mom gave her most beautiful smile sending messages of love and contentment._

_The same smile she gave __her__ in her deathbed. She also fought to smile back._

_Now that her mom faced the light, she turned her head over her shoulder and gave her daughter eight words as her parting gift…_

_"I too will always. Be strong, Mary Katherine."_

_And she stepped into the light._

* * *

Mary Katherine or M.K. for short found herself staring at the familiar ceiling of '_their' _dark living room.

Having just awakened from the dream of her mother crossing over the light, a voice at the back of her head whispered in mockery.

* * *

_"…Be strong, Mary Katherine…"_

* * *

How can she be strong when she's in need of someone to comfort her—excluding her dad—with her crushed heart still bleeding over a late mother? Tears threatened to cloud her vision at the thought that she just saidgoodbye to her mother.

She continued to stare at the ceiling while one hand running through her hair until it paused on the crown. The silence in the living room wastaunting her, and for the first time she was really alone.

She inhaled shakily and felt the tingling sensation of her tear ducts letting the water flow out of her green eyes.

She felt so empty and lonely that the last few days couldn'trival what she wasexperiencing now. Like someone robbed a part of her life and stashed it inside a box and threw it into a rampaging sea until it sunk into the deepest abyss of the world.

This new kind of pain was at a different level compared to when she first saw her mother's unmoving body in the hospital.

Fat drops of tears smeared her all-readied stained cheeks as she gasped between her sobs that were starting to hamper her to talk. "_Goodbye, Mom."_

The incoming hitch was in her throat and she let it out. She then curled into a ball facing the couch's cushion and silently cried her eyes out as if there wasno tomorrow.

No one couldmend this broken person from her grief since the only person who couldis gone.

Yet she was still human and her eyes soon became tired of producing tears to shed until she was reduced to hiccups and sniffles.

It took almost half an hour to calm herself with her body feeling tired more than ever, even though she's resting on the couch.

She sat up tiredly and wiped the remaining wetness on her face with the back of her palm, her hair hanging loosely with the hairband forgotten on the pillow. She shifted to the edge where bare feet metthe fuzzy carpeted floor, the blanket being put aside with the photograph on top of it.

She wanted to stay layon the cushions staring miserably at the ceiling until her butt got sore but her body was on auto pilot for her to wash her face first, she obey it.

Still sniffing, she groggily stood up with a sudden head rush from her momentum; ittook a moment for the feeling to disappear. Oncethe feeling was gone, she began her zombie-trudge to the bathroom when a clattering noise followed by someone cursing on the floor above made her jump out of her skin.

It must be a cat.

Yeah, that's what her fuzzy conscience is telling.

But she doesn't own one and cats don't curse.

…

Someone just broke into her house.

More noises followed and she rushed to the front door and grabbed the baseball bat hidden behind the coat hanger noiselessly without notifying the intruder upstairs that the tenant of the house was armed to pitch him in the head.

Once the cooling touch of the metal bat was in her grasp, she climbed upstairs stealthily but remaining watchful by jumping over some steps that would creak at a tinsy bit of pressure.

Did she mention that she's part of the baseball team?

* * *

"I vould never thought you, Sandy old friend, vould have cats not like your dreamsand!"

North boomed a drunk or a jolly kind of laugh where one has to figure which one it is after he and Sandy crossed paths in the middle of their collecting in Burgess. Well they didn't 'cross' paths, in North's case, who chanced upon jumping on a roof where he saw Sandy trying to impress a stray cat.

Sandy made an impression of an annoyed eye roll but seeing that his situation with the cat was funny, it looked more amused than annoyed. The two laughed on their hippity hoppity roofs and chimneys until they separated to sneak into houses and back again while North exchanged small conversations.

They parted again after some time and North was left tohis own musings as he gathered children's teeth by entering their houses via chimneys or unlocking windows with a simple spell he had learned from Ombric—but sometimes he would switch to open them manually similar to the fashion he did in his former life as a bandit, and he would likely pretend that he was stealing not a child's tooth, but a tsar's most prized crown.

If one child wasawake and saw him with a sack of what they may first think contained presents the night before Easter, then they're wrong. Tonight their Santa Claus was doing the opposite.

But lucky to their Santa, none of the children of Burgess were awake, too tired after a long day of sledding and throwing snowballs before the snow melts into a puddle and spring takes over.

North disappeared into the chimney of a two-storey house next to an intersection. He sprung out seconds later for finding the resident child was instead camping in the basement with four other children in sleeping bags.

He jumped and headed to a brightly painted house next to it and landed with ease far beyond what an average old geezer can do—well, North was still kicking and healthy like his former bandit days, and unlike his old man he never experienced any form of rheumatism or arthritis—on the balcony situated at the back where two sliding glass doors were locked. A piece of cake.

With one hand still holding his sack over his broad shoulder, choosing to do the manual way, he brought out a switch knife from his coat and began picking on the lock. With perfect ease it only took him less than three seconds to hear the lock click open. He smirked at his achievement because he never left scratches on any lock's surface and locked them again as he left so one couldfigure out how their jewellery were taken.

He replaced his knife and slid the door open to enter the house quietly, no sound coming from his step despite all of his bulkiness.

Well his bulkiness _may_ have led him into trouble. The glass door wasn't wide enough for him to completely enter without bumping on either side of the entrance. His sack was snagged by the sharp curve of the door knob and it slipped from his grasp, dropping with a loud clatter.

Any normal sack would be torn open by the knob, but to North his sacks are enchanted from any sharp objects and couldhold almost any weight (with the example of Jack being shoved into it and tossed through a magic portal).

So that was the case when the sack spilled out an astonishing number of teeth on the floor. He cursed in Russian. He hastily knelt down and gathered as many teeth as his large beefy hand could get while the other snatched the sack, and hoped no one was awaken from the noise.

He washaving difficulty gathering the teeth in the dark. While doing so, he didn't notice the incoming swing of a bat.

And that a gold figure had drifted down the balcony to see the unsuspecting Guardian of Wonder about to be struck on the head.

It happened so fast; the figure hidden in the darkness was bringing down a metal bat to North's head and Sandy conjured a ball made out of sand and aimed it to the attacker. The result was expected; once the ball made contact to the target's face, he saw the face of a redhead girl dropping her eyes and falling back onto the floor with a thump. The bat fell out of her hand with a clang as she collapsed and North, with no idea of what happened, shot his head up and turned to the source only to see the faint figure of a teenage girl being knocked out on the floor.

Sandy huffed a sigh of relief, but he couldn'thelp but wonder why a teen way past her childhood could see (and attack) North. He turned to him with his eyes wide in incredulity, "Sandy?" He looked back to the girl and Sandy could tell he was experiencing the same thoughts. "Rimsky Korsakov! I did not sense her coming, lest sees me!"

He dropped the teeth he was gathering and proceed to carry her back to her room, only to find out that none of the rooms had the beds been occupied a few minutes ago. So the two Guardians and the sleeping girl went downstairs where they found the couch with a blanket and a framed photograph on top of it in the living room.

* * *

M. K. woke up from the sound of the birds chirping; she had just had a vivid dream of her Mom stepping into the light, then found herself 'awake' and she was sneaking up on a burglar who looked like Santa Clause. She doubted it was all real, but looked around the living room anyway, to find her bat nestled between the front door and the coat hanger untouched.

Yep, it was all a dream; a way to welcome Easter, a time for spring and new beginnings while she's dealing under the 5 Stages of Grief.

She went out to brood by the riverbank near the block, just to escape the sympathizing looks her neighbours gave, the occasional voice calls of Pippa's mom—basically her aunt in the second degree—, and the laughs of happy children running around for the egg hunt. She wanted the world to shut up and be gloomy just for today.

Maybe she should not have wished that because the kids looked… dull, and there wasn't an egg to be found.

Or maybe she was hallucinating when she heard a faint jingling sound the following morning, the kids having their smiles back.

* * *

**Pippa (the girl wearing a bonnet in ROTG) and M.K. are redheads so I made them relatives, both their moms are cousins, which made Pippa and M.K. 2****nd**** degree cousins in my head canon. **

**But if possible, M.K. and Jack Frost can be siblings because William Joyce based M.K.'s name from his late daughter, Mary Katherine Joyce, and he has a son named Jackson Edward Joyce. Plus both are the primary protagonist of their movie and wearing hoodies of opposite colors of red and blue.**

**The reason why M.K. can see North and not Sandy is because she might've always wish to Santa that her Dad will stop chasing the Leafmen and have a 'normal' father even though that is something he can't give as Santa.**

**(1)Plot hole alert, plot hole alert! I'm confuse, Easter is on Sunday and if you squint your eyes hard at the bottom of "Burgess Easter Egg Hunt" banners hanging in Burgess, it says "Saturday". What the heck the animators are thinking?!**

**And I use the reference of Sandy getting the cat's attention from the comics in the wiki. If you notice in the 1****st**** chapter, I also add some parts of the "Truth or Dare"(whatever name it is I forgot) comics of Jamie trying to get a picture of North prior the movie.**


End file.
